The Lottery

The themes and issues raised in this story.

1) Scapegoating.

This oftenly happens in real life, with us wanting to push the blame to another person, not wanting to suffer the consequences which the fault they caused brings. This is also shown in my life too, during the secondary 1 annual camp. During our trek to the milo slide, almost half our group got lost. Those people, who did not want to take up responsibility for misleading the group, pushed all of the blame to Samuel Ng. This is a very good example of modern day scapegoating. Usually, the scapegoater is very much less believed as majority of the people all push their blame to him, making the scapegoater the underdog in this situation.

2) The unfairness of the human society.

As many people would have at least suffered a situation in which they were put in an unfair role. unfairness is rampant. Let us get back to the story of 'The Lottery'. The lottery tickets were put in a box and gives all its participants a fair chance. You get what you pick. This is the fairest way, which is by chance. Tessie Hutchinson should not have put up a fight in being chosen as the winner of the lottery. She fairly picked that ticket, fairly got chosen, but still exclaims that the lottery was unfair. In life, not many things go according to your way.

3) Hypocrisy of man

People also tend to follow blindly what others are doing, without sparing a thought about whether it is the right thing to do. Some people may follow what others are wrongly, leading to them making the same mistake. Let us get bak to the story of, ze lottery. Tessie Hutchinson in the spotlight, again. she goes to the lottery happily, joking with the others like in any other party. However, when the results of the lottery are revealed and Tessie Hutchinson is the 'chosen one' she immediately begins to shriek, "It's not fair, it isn't right." Her change in emotions is very great. From happily arriving to participate in the lottery, to receiving a death sentence. This was what happened to Tessie Hutchinson when she drawed the 'winning ticket', she did not once stop to think if having the lottery is a bad event. She only thought of it when she was chosen to die. This point can be seen in many people, doing what others are doing, and regrets it when the consequences come in.

Well, that's all for today, the next blog post should come in a few day's time. I hope.

What are teenagers' attitudes towards studying nowadays?

How do you think that teenagers' attitude towards work has changed over the years? Well, it is quite obvious that majority of the teenagers nowadays have become lazier and more reluctant to study. They do not take the initiative to pick up their work and revise when they have nothing to do. They do their work halfheartedly and decide to close up the book even before they have finished doing it. Then, they plunge into video games. However, whenever a test nears, they would then hurriedly pick up their textbooks and do last-minute revision, hoping to get a good grade just through that one hour of revising. As my Japanese teacher once said: Children nowadays do not study unless there are tests. Her statement appears to be quite true. Why have teenagers degraded to such of today's state? Does the problem lie in video games? Parents always say that video games are the cause of why their children are not doing well, and that f they keep playing, they would get addicted very easily and neglect their studies. I, however, disagree with this point. I personally feel that the problem lies in the child himself, instead of the video games. It is because of the child's lack of discipline that is causing them to play video games endlessly, and neglecting their studies. If the child has self-discipline and says stop, after an hour or more of video games and gets back to his work after that, letting the child play is alright. The child should take control over the ame, rather than let the game control him.Most studying children lack this basic skill. That is why their grades are dropping and they are spending more time on the computer playing games. So, parents should stop blaming video games over their child's grades. They should instead, allow the child to exercise self-control. If this fails, Then, should video games be cut down. The child should also be willing to do self-revision. I guess if these measures are taken, the child would not only excel in his studies, but also be able to set some time aside for relaxation. As the saying goes: All work no play makes Jack a dull boy. So, instead of cutting out the child completely free of video games, let him enjoy a little, and see if he can exercise this small little thing called self-discipline.